Lafayette QBs and other signing-day tidbits

“You’re only as good as the competition you have at every position, and the competition just picked up at that one,” Lafayette football coach Frank Tavani told the media the other day while announcing the Leopards’ recruiting class of 2011.

The “that one” Tavani was talking about was quarterback, which could easily be the pivotal position this fall as the Leopards battle back from last year’s 2-9 record, a mark that matched the worst in Tavani’s head coaching career on College Hill.

Lafayette found a pair of players who have impressive credentials and references.

Zach Zweizig (6-5, 215) of Wilson West Lawn played for Coach Doug Dahms, who was a college teammate of Tavani’s at Lebanon Valley. Zweizig passed for 2,326 yards as a junior and was on a lot of Division I recruiting lists. But apparently, when he suffered a shoulder separation of his throwing shoulder early in his senior season, the big-time schools did a disappearing act.

It was a non-surgical injury, and after missing four weeks, Zweizig came back strong and threw for 284 yards and three TDs in his final high school game. But it wasn’t until about 10 days before national signing day that Lafayette found out Zweizig was still available and got involved. An aid package was put together quickly and Zweizig accepted.

“He’s an impressive, physical kid, 6-5, 215 pounds; we’re excited about him,” offensive coordinator Mickey Fein said. “He’s impressive on tape, and he’s a 1,000-point scorer in basketball, too. He’s a kid when you sit him down has a little “it” to him. We’re excited about both (our quarterbacks). They are excited to compete. The quarterback has to be the most competitive guy on your team.”

Lafayette’s other QB recruit made an early verbal commitment and stuck with it. Kyle Ohradzansky (6-0, 210) was a three-year starter for Canton (Ohio) McKinley, where he passed for more than 4,000 yards and 40 touchdowns. How much does Fein like him? Listen.

“He comes from one of the best programs in the country,” Fein told me. “He’s a coach’s kid, has all those intangibles. He’s an impressive kid to sit and talk with, really is a gym rat as far as wanting to know. He called about 80 percent of their offense on the line of scrimmage. He really knew what he was doing and how to get things. He is an impressive athlete, a really good hockey player, too. He understands a lot about football and that’s a plus at that position.”

Ohradzansky graduated from high school early in January and enrolled at Lafayette for the spring semester. That means he will be available to spring football practices, giving him a jump on Zweizig and most of the other incoming class. It will also give him a first-hand look at his competition.

Leading the way, of course, is rising senior Ryan O’Neil, who passed for almost 2,200 yards and 15 touchdowns in his first year as a starter. He was injured in the opening game of the season; he was benched later in the year, but he came back in the final two games finished strong, even though Lafayette did not win either game.

I asked Fein if the QB position is O’Neil’s to lose at this point, and he said, “Yeah, absolutely. He came back and did a pretty good job the last two games and we’re excited about him going into his senior year and having a year under his belt and hopefully staying healthy. His first start, he does that with his knee and that’s a tough deal, especially with a kid who is as athletic as Ryan. He came back and played really well against Holy Cross and just came up short and then same thing against Lehigh, played solid. He has to take the experience he got and run forward with it. Things were new to him last year and he has to react now like he’s been there. He has to understand what position he has, where he has to go with the football, react to it quicker and have a better handle of everything and I think he’ll do that.”

Rising junior Andrew Shoop played in just three games and threw just three passes last year. He has impressed the coaches with his arm strength, and the only thing holding him back last year was the need to master the offense. Rising sophomore Patrick McCain saw no game action as a freshman but is an imposing figure at 6-4, 230.

Don’t look for the two guys to be conceding anything to O’Neil.

“Shoop and McCain are going to be pushing him in the spring,” Fein said. “We like to have a competitive atmosphere. They will compete every day. If they do some stuff, people will notice. I tell them, ‘When it’s your turn in there, do things that make us not take you out.’ That’s a big part. You don’t want to go in there and not do the things you’re supposed to do. You want people to say, ‘Wow, look at that.’ They’ll have plenty of opportunities.”

Tavani said, "The quarterbacks will wear the same color jersies as the rest of the guys; they have to earn their stripes because we have to get better."

I asked Tavani if McCain now would find himself in the same position that Shoop was in last season, using his entire sophomore season as a learning experience.

“He has really improved himself physically, done a great job in weight room,” Tavani said. “He ran the ride option series, so he knows what running the ball is all about. He really improved his arm. If his brain catches up to everything he has improved on, he’ll compete in there.”

Fein added, “He has put on better weight. He’s about the same, but he looks different than when he first got here. He still has some maturing to go, but it’s surprising for as big as he is, he runs very well.”

So, Mickey, five quarterbacks. How will you keep them all happy?

“That will keep me busy,” the former record-setting Maine Bears’ QB said with a smile. “I don’t know if everybody can necessarily be happy, but they can always been good teammates. That’s the biggest part. Ryan will graduate next year. We’ll see how those guys go about doing things.

“I’m excited about the whole class. We ended up running into a lot of kids we couldn’t turn down. We were very excited about last year’s class, and we believe this class is right there, if not better. You get those two classes together and hopefully, some good things will happen.”

THE REST OF THE STORY

There was a real sense of accomplishment in the halls of the Bourger Varsity Football House on Wednesday. The faxes of the recruits came in rapidly; only one kid had to scramble around looking for a way to send his letter of intent after his school was closed for the day.

I can’t go into detail on every player or position the way I did with the QBs, but here are a couple of things I found interesting.

THE KICKING GAME -- Kicker-punter recruit Austin O’Brien seems like an interesting catch. First, he’s 6-3, 250 pounds, which sounds more like a defensive end than a kicker.

“He’s impressive; he puts the ball in the end zone on kickoffs, and with a little technique work, he’ll get even better,” Tavani said. “He has a strong leg. He turned down a full scholarship to Temple to come here. He didn’t get everything here with a need-based package. We were really pleased. He was highly rated from kicking camps we get info from.”

Ethan Swerdlow, who got in a couple of PATs and kickoffs as the backup to Davis Rodriguez last year, is back. Anthony Ciminello missed his freshman year because of an injury; and 2010 walk-on Chris Rodrigues, a Wilson High grad, also is back.

“He’s a great young man; he has to get stronger,” Tavani said of Rodrigues. “He has worked at it since he got here, and he has it right in front of him. Swerdlow can do both (punting and placekicking), but that’s not my desire. He can really hit it punting, and I’d like to focus on that. We have to see how that goes,. Ciminello is talented but we haven’t seen him kick since preseason camp. (Recruiting a kicker) was down the list of priorities because we had to first take care of other things, but when we had an opportunity to take Austin, I jumped at the chance.”

LONG-DISTANCE CATCHES – How does a kid from Missoula, Mont. Or Fresno, Calif. find his way to Easton, PA? Well, Michael Duncan, a wide receiver-kick returned from Big Sky High in Missoula, and Zach Boman, a defensive lineman from Fresno, both made trips East to a series of one-day football camps, and Lafayette’s Lauren’s First and Goal just happened to be one of them. That opened the door. Duncan was a first-team Class AA all-state punt returner; Boman had 10 sacks last fall as a DE. “I was in Missoula once; I saw my son Dan play against the University of Montana,” Tavani said. “It was a very nice place to visit. Even after Wofford won, they were pretty hospitable.”

SOME LOOSE TALK – I asked John Loose if he thought any of the defensive recruits might work into the lineup in their first year, and he gave an interesting overall assessment. “Yeah, at least special teams,” he said. “We played Stony Brook last year, and when I watched the film the next day, I noticed at one point we had an outside backer, inside backer, corner and safety -- all on the same side -- who were true freshmen. That takes a toll on your season. That’s why you end up where you are. Those guys are not weight-trained. They haven’t touched a college weight at least. There’s a big difference from high school when it comes to strength and knowledge of what you’re doing. I thought our freshmen class last year was the best class by far of the 12 years I’ve been here. I think this class is just like that class. We beat people on kids. We’ve taken some kids nobody recruited that we were right on.”

FEIN ON RECRUITING QB TODAY – I asked him if he had to look for a different type of kid for today’s college game. “Not much,” he said. “The biggest thing you look for is you want a leader. You definitely want a kid who understands exactly what he’s doing. But with where the game is at now, you want a kid who can at least be a little bit more athletic. I’m not saying we’re going to be spread or anything, but if he can get a couple of first downs on third down with his feet … I think both guys we have coming in with this class can do that.”

TAVANI ON THE UPCOMING SEASON – Frank was asked if he felt an urgency to win in 2011 after last year’s 2-9. He said, “Not really. We won three championships, and any one of those, give or take a half dozen plays, could have been the other way around. Last year was just the opposite; a couple of plays could have made things much better. There is a fine line between winning and losing. I know the job we did and there were things that were out of our control. Nobody has more of a bad taste about the 2010 season than I do, trust me. Nobody is more critical about their own self than I am. We’re not young this year. We have a totally different team coming back; the mindset is already different. It’ll be fun. We have a tough a schedule, opening open with a Top 10 or Top 5 team in North Dakota State. It’s an exciting way to start and build for what our goal is, to win the Patriot League championship. I don’t feel any pressure or sense of urgency. I’m confident in what we’re returning and what we’re bringing in and the direction of things.”